Stagecoach Mary

Stagecoach Mary Fields

c. 1832-1914

Just like the storied cowboys of the plains,

Mary finds Montana wild and free.

A liberated slave from Tennessee,

she’s odd in white Cascade, where cigar stains

on six-foot girls are rare. And she retains

her modesty, a shotgun keeping louts at bay.

The liberal mayor lets her drink and play

at cards in his saloon. She masters reins

to beat out angry men for stagecoach routes,

a first for women, making rounds when sun

sears and wind chafes. She wins those bouts,

protects the mail. With laughs and whiskey breath,

she tells of facing wolves one nighttime run

through snow—her knife and shotgun beating death.